NovoCure's Optune Pax Approved in Japan for Advanced Pancreatic Cancer

09:28 AM EDT, 10/01/2026 (MT Newswires) -- NovoCure (NVCR) said Thursday that Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has approved Optune Pax to treat adults with unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer, concomitant with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel. The portable medical device is designed to provide tumor treating fields, which the oncology company said stop cancer cells from dividing and kill them, without significantly affecting healthy cells. The company said the approval was based on the phase 3 PANOVA-3 trial, which demonstrated that adding tumor treating fields to standard chemotherapy helped patients with advanced pancreatic cancer live significantly longer than chemotherapy alone.